Oct. 23, 2025

■ ‘US Secret Service has closed access to the Ellipse park where journalists had been capturing live images of the East Wing demolition. CNN had a photojournalist capturing live images of the demolition at the time. Reuters was also ushered out of the park.’ (Jim Sciutto)

■ Right-wing outlets converge on Pentagon (Axios) / ‘The far-right conspiracy site Infowars says it has signed the Pentagon press agreement …’ (Scott Nover) / The Pentagon’s new press corps — journalists or advocates? (Poynter)

■ Warner Bros. Discovery launches formal auction as it seeks bidding war for media giant (New York Post) / Zaslav stands to make $500M from Warner Bros. Discovery sale (Semafor) / David Ellison may have a ‘Trump card’ — literally — in Warner Bros. Discovery pursuit (CNN) 

■ ‘As morale sinks and top talent exits, staffers at The Washington Post are bracing for more pain ahead of the holidays — raising questions about Will Lewis’ leadership, nearly two years into his tenure as chief executive’ (Status) / ‘WaPo head of visuals Greg Manifold is leaving for other opportunities, according to an internal memo. It’s the latest gut punch to the WaPo newsroom, which is anticipating significant cuts to audio, sports, and metro divisions ahead.’ (Natalie Korach)

■ TelevisaUnivision sees Q3 profit dip due in part to advertising shortfall (Variety) / TelevisaUnivision CEO weighs in on YouTube dispute, political ad spend forecast (Hollywood Reporter) 

■ NewsNation reporter caught up in 'incredibly volatile' ICE-raid clash in NYC (The Wrap) / Man shot in ICE confrontation was a 'respected and admired' citizen journalist with TikTok following (NBC News) 

■ Two Ukrainian TV journalists killed, one injured in Russian drone strike on Kramatorsk (The Kyiv Independent)

■ Scripps names Daniel Parsons chief information security officer (TV News Check) / Angie Martinez named KRGV news director (Mike McGuff) / Bloomberg hires Salmon as senior writer (Talking Biz News) / Broadcasting icon George Graham to retire after 50+ years of shaping public radio and championing local music at WVIA (WVIA)

■ National Federation of Community Broadcasters lands $1.25M MacArthur grant (Current)

■ More than 1,200 games journalists have left the media in the last two years (Video Games Chronicle) 

■ Iowa's rural newspapers are closing, but not without a fight (Axios Des Moines)

■ Rebuilding the research desk in local newsrooms (Nieman Journalism Lab) / Poynter, Press Forward Central Appalachia create program for local news funders (Poynter)

How to think about pacing in narrative journalism

“I do think about momentum and pacing a lot in my writing, and I think that just like cycling, you don't want to just go one speed. It depends on the terrain. You have to sometimes push really hard and then take a recovery interval. And with narrative, I think that if you are just going all out, full speed, you can really tire the reader. And so I try to build in little breaks for maybe a moment of exposition to catch your breath after a dramatic scene. And I think that the result is the reader is pulled through the story.”

-- Kim Cross, journalist and author, excerpt from “Journalist Kim Cross on reconstructed narratives and the women who led a cycling revolution in Afghanistan” (Nieman Storyboard)

Introducing Canva’s video editing timeline

Editor’s note: Throughout the month of October, the Institute and Canva are offering free bite-sized trainings on tips, tools, and Canva templates designed just for journalists. Sign up now to receive the daily emails.

When news breaks, no one has time to fumble around in clunky video editing software that takes hours to figure out. Canva offers a great place to start when producing minute-long stand-ups, interviews, or social media cards to produce stories in bite-sized, social formats — even on the go.

Video editing in Canva starts with a paired-down timeline beneath the video frame. The timeline shows the order of the scenes (also called pages) that make up your video, accompanied by any audio you’ve included.

You can customize your video with graphics, text, and other elements by browsing the elements menu on the lefthand side. Along the timeline, you can select transitions to weave pages together. (Learn more about how to interact with the timeline here.)

Using Canva’s stock footage

Using stock footage can be helpful when you are breaking news and aren’t on the scene or don’t have usable original video. Canva has an expansive collection of stock videos available for use — you can find these by browsing the elements menu on the lefthand side. Simply drag and drop your selected footage into the editing frame, or click the video to make it appear in the editor.

However, you want to be careful about using stock videos that may misrepresent the story at hand. And always confirm you have permission to use the stock footage — even Creative Commons-licensed images and video footage can have stipulations on how you may use them. Review Canva’s content license agreement before publishing any stock videos, and be sure to follow your newsroom’s ethics policies on using video you didn’t record.

Run For Austin Virtual 5K

The annual Run For Austin Virtual 5K race is Saturday, Nov. 8. Join us to raise support and awareness for the Austin Tice fund.

Learn more and sign up here.

Resources

• How to network and find your next great opportunity (Nov. 6 noon ET)
• Unexplored stories on community colleges (Education Writers Association)
• How non-coding journalists can build web scrapers with AI (examples and prompts included) (Pulitzer Center)

This newsletter is written and edited by the National Press Club Journalism Institute staff: Beth Francesco, Holly Butcher Grant, and Elliot C. Williams. Send us your questions and suggestions for topics to cover.

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